1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to acoustics, and, in particular, to microphone arrays.
2. Description of the Related Art
A microphone array-based audio system typically comprises two units: an arrangement of (a) two or more microphones (i.e., transducers that convert acoustic signals (i.e., sounds) into electrical audio signals) and (b) a beamformer that combines the audio signals generated by the microphones to form an auditory scene representative of at least a portion of the acoustic sound field. This combination enables picking up acoustic signals dependent on their direction of propagation. As such, microphone arrays are sometimes also referred to as spatial filters. Their advantage over conventional directional microphones, such as shotgun microphones, is their high flexibility due to the degrees of freedom offered by the plurality of microphones and the processing of the associated beamformer. The directional pattern of a microphone array can be varied over a wide range. This enables, for example, steering the look direction, adapting the pattern according to the actual acoustic situation, and/or zooming in to or out from an acoustic source. All this can be done by controlling the beamformer, which is typically implemented in software, such that no mechanical alteration of the microphone array is needed.
There are several standard microphone array geometries. The most common one is the linear array. Its advantage is its simplicity with respect to analysis and construction. Other geometries include planar arrays, random arrays, circular arrays, and spherical arrays. The spherical array has several advantages over the other geometries. The beampattern can be steered to any direction in three-dimensional (3-D) space, without changing the shape of the pattern. The spherical array also allows full 3-D control of the beampattern. Notwithstanding these advantages, there is also one major drawback. Conventional spherical arrays typically require many microphones. As a result, their implementation costs are relatively high.